Retirement: The 3 Decisions Most People Miss for Lasting Successනියැදිය

1. God’s Will or Your Will?

For many, retirement is imagined as a personal paradise: finally doing what you want, when you want, with no one to report to and nothing left to prove. Travel. Golf. Afternoon naps. A bucket list full of personal adventures.

The world calls this freedom. But is that also true for us as Christians?

As followers of Christ, we know something the world does not: this season of life is not the beginning of self-indulgence; it is the final chapter before eternity.

Retirement is the last stretch of your earthly journey, the final years before you meet your God, your Creator, face to face. That perspective should sober and awaken us. It should motivate us not to waste our final years chasing what is meaningless.

Jesus said this:

“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” – John 6:38 NIV

If Jesus lived with that kind of focus, what about us as Christ-followers? Can we accept the popular thinking that our highest calling in retirement is leisure? Of exercising our “freedom” to finally do whatever we want?

The psalmist offers this insight:

“They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” – Psalm 92:14 NIV

Just because you finished working and are now retired, your spiritual calling does not stop. If anything, you now have more time to follow through on all those good intentions you had in the years before. You’ve entered a strategic phase where God can use your wisdom, stature, and experience to influence others for His Kingdom..

He still has work for you to do. To waste this final chapter would be like a toddler staying happily in the mud, unaware that greater and more beautiful things await in the years ahead.

Over the years, God has grown you— through a lifetime of challenges, relationships, and responsibilities—not so you can finally slow down, but to ready you for the greatest impact of your life. This is not your season to shrink back. It’s your moment to rise up.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes this:

“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” – Romans 12:1 NIV

The “offering” that Paul refers to includes your energy, your relationships, your time, and your wisdom.

You are not retired from obedience. You are not excused from purpose. You are still a vessel for God’s glory. And He is eager to have you help build His Kingdom here on earth, right where you are, with the tools & talents He has already provided you.

At the conclusion of our retirement years, we will all be called to stand before Him. When it is your time, what do you want to hear?

“Well done, good and faithful servant,”

Or the question:

“What did you do with the final years I gave you?”

Challenge and Application:

Don’t drift through these years. Decide today: Will I use this final phase of life to glorify God or to glorify myself?

Lay your calendar before the Lord. Lay down your personal bucket list. Ask Him, “What do You want from me now?“

Retirement is not your time to disengage. It is your moment to finish well.